Teaching
I meet all and exceed many of the standards from Appendix 4's section on Teaching and should therefore be granted rank advancement.
Exceeding Standard Professional Performance
Exceeding Standard Professional Performance
- Learning Environment: As reflected in the Professional Statement pages (Teaching Philosophy, Learning Objectives, and Teaching Methodologies), I am an energetic, engaged teacher, and I employ intentional strategies to help students engage with the content in my classes. I intentionally foster a safe and effective learning environment for students. I use anonymous polling, small-group discussions, no-stakes activities, and validation to give students a voice in my classes and foster an effective learning environment. The strategies encourage student engagement in a way that is above and beyond College expectations.
- High Impact Practices: One of the high-impact practices designed by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is the use of the ePortfolio. I piloted a redesigned approach to ePortfolios around principles of transparency and equity. The result was a fundamental shift in the students' views about the ePortfolio or even General Education as a whole. When many students are complaining about both, my students genuinely experienced a high-impact practice. Click here for details about that project and to read the students' comments.
- Assessment: I participate in the assessment of our students' learning, both in our program and in my courses. As noted above, I redesigned the ePortfolio experience and collected data from students about its impact. I also regularly update aspects of my courses around my assessment of course design standards and student "pain points."
- Availability to Students: In addition to my official office hours, I have a Calendly page that students can use to set an appointment with me; it is linked to my Outlook calendar, so students can literally sign up for any block of time where I don't already have something scheduled. In other words, students have about twenty hours per week that they could choose to meet with me, if needed. This approach goes well beyond College expectations.
- Syllabus: The syllabus is on campus before the class is published. Students can access it as soon as the Canvas site opens up. My syllabi are detailed and thorough and communicate my support for students through methods like "life lines" (where lowest scores get dropped) and policies for accepting late work. This level of detail goes beyond College expectations.
- Resources and Technology: My Teaching Philosophy, Learning Objectives, and Teaching Methodologies pages reflect the strategies I employ in class to aid student learning.
- Teaching practices: My Teaching Philosophy, Learning Objectives, and Teaching Methodologies pages reflect my strategies for facilitating critical thinking and fostering achievement of course outcomes.
- Personal Views: I am very careful about keeping my personal views out of the classroom. In my first week of law school, I was taught two fundamental and related ideas regarding the practice of law: "reasonable minds can disagree" and a good lawyer needs to be able to "argue both sides." I bring that perspective into my classroom, carefully validating students' viewpoints and intentionally creating space for students of differing viewpoints. My approach on this issue goes beyond College expectations.
- Grades and Feedback: I grade assignments within a week of the due date, and provide individual feedback in Canvas to every student on each assignment, even if just a sentence or two, to maintain engagement and to provide support. If a student misses even one point on an assignment, they will have a note from me with an explanation and instructions for how to improve on their next assignment. See the example below. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)
Meeting Standard Professional Performance
- Staying Informed: I subscribe to the prominent journals in my field (Journal of Marriage and Family, Family Relations: Interdisciplinary Journal of Applied Family Science, and Journal of Family Theory & Review). As noted on my Teaching Methodologies page, I incorporate that content into my classes as appropriate.
- Curriculum: I am always improving my courses and adding to the content on Canvas. I have spent considerable time updating content pages for our Lifespan Development course and plan to do the same for our Marriage and Family Relationships course next, then our Introduction to Human Sexuality course.